Waukee ice cream shop Home Sweet Cone expanding to a second location. Find out where:

A family-owned ice cream shop in Waukee is expanding into West Des Moines — and if it goes well, the owner of Home Sweet Cone said the business may keep adding locations in the Des Moines metro.

Owner Colleen Strohmaier she "was getting very comfortable" with the imminent three-year anniversary of Home Sweet Cone opening at 1188 Southeast University Ave. in Waukee — and that meant it was probably time to add a second location.

Strohmaier found that second location for lease at 5045 Bentley Drive in West Des Moines — next to the IHOP off South 50th Street, in section of the shopping center that was added last year. A Wasabi sushi restaurant location also is planned in the same newly built addition.

Home Sweet Cone's all-natural ice creams are made daily and are extra creamy because of their higher-than required-butterfat content — 16% butterfat compared to the 10% that the FDA says a product can be considered ice cream.

Strohmaier's first job was serving ice cream and she left a full-time corporate job in December 2020 to become a small business owner.

"I always want people to walk in and it feels homey and inviting," she said of Home Sweet Cone. She said the design and decor at the West Des Moines location will be similar to Waukee's.

The ice cream will continue to be made in Waukee and will be brought over to the West Des Moines shop.

But the West Des Moines shop will have some expanded features. West Des Moines' shop will have a bigger display cabinet — which will mean more buckets on hand of top-selling flavors, such as Strohmaier's favorite, salted Oreo.

The display cabinet also will have a tile-covered step-up platform in front of it for children to get a better view of the flavors.

Strohmaier said Home Sweet Cone has what she already kind of considers a third location — a mobile ice cream truck that's a refurbished 1959 Ford Grumman towel delivery van. The truck is rented out for parties, weddings and other events.

But she loves the idea of a drive-thru location, and if all goes well with the second location in West Des Moines, Strohmaier said she'd consider adding other brick and mortar stores.

She's hoping the West Des Moines shop will open at the end of June or in early July.

"People feel like it's so far to get to Waukee," she said. She appreciates the new location in West Des Moines for being close to Valley High School and Valley Stadium as well as other local businesses.

"I like being part of a little niche" of local businesses, Strohmaier said.

Phillip Sitter covers the western suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Home Sweet Cone ice cream plans second location in Des Moines metro